NEWS WITHOUT JOURNALISTS: Real threat or horror story?

Abstract

Journalism as a profession and know-how is caught up in awhirlwind of changes. The end of the newspaper would notautomatically mean the end of journalism or of journalists, but itis difficult to imagine how the institution´s collapse could occurwithout triggering an earthquake in the definition and practiceof journalism. Journalism as a professional culture with codifiedabilities and characteristics runs the risk of being diluted andtransformed into the vague continuum of those who are alreadyknown as “information workers”. This article will suggest howseveral contemporary trends are challenging and redefiningjournalistic practice. The objective of this article is to advocatethe possibility of defining the journalist as someone who collectsfacts that are not on a screen in his office, as someone who talksto the audiences that are not just consumers and as someone whomaintains sufficient autonomy to practice the skills of a criticalverifier of the news.

Keywords

• journalism
• transformations
• role of the journalist
• trends.